I made this maquette while planning my helmet. After the helmet was finished I repaired and finished the maquette, adding Hair and more pieces of armour. I wanted to create an antique silver finish, so I first applied a special silver paint and then several layers of acrylic paint.

The maquette is made of polymer clay with an aluminium core. It’s height is 9.5 cm.

Nerwen is Galadriel’s mother name. It’s meaning is “man-maiden”. I really like the Idea that Galadriel was quite the warrior in her youth and only grew into her serene self much later.

This was in 2010. Nepenthe was an NPC apprentice mage on the “Zeit der Legenden” The costume was completely improvised, since I was originally supposed to play a different character.
Since I have been asked about the hood a lot – It’s not even a real hood, but really just a rectangular piece of linen cloth. It’s draped to keep the sun of and to look cool and held together by two safety pins and a brooch. It worked out fairly well.

In 2009 I decided that if I wanted to fight in LARP battles, I needed a helmet. But It’s hard to come by a helmet for an elven character. Having one custom made was not an option at the time since I was still in school.

I made this one with the help of my mum and a few friends. I bought a cheap steel helmet and we polished it and added build the leather corona. I then sent the components to another friend, Mimin, for clinching.

I wore it for six years, though it always looked a bit odd, due to the steel helmet being a bit too large for my head. I only had a new helmet custom-made this year, so its retirement time for the old one.

And since I never took photos of it, it was now or never. It looks quite beaten up by now, the leather parts are deformed and frayed.

I made a corset for my mage character. It’s not done yet, but there are a few in-progress photos I’d like to share.
I took a tudor corset pattern and changed it to suit my needs. It is shorter than it’s historical counterparts, since I have to be able to move around in it a lot. I also made the upper edge pointing upwards to enhance the ArtDeco feel of this costume part.

I used linen cloth for the lining and rattan for the lining. The outer layer is going to be brocade.

The corset originally was going to have cording as well as a front clasp, but breathing proved really hard in this. So I decided to exchange the cording for 10 cm wide elastic straps. So It is more like a fake corset now.

About me

My Name is Wanda Sonnemann.
This Blog contains my personal work, including the crafting of costumes, both Larp and otherwise. Other than that I paint, both digitally and traditionally, dabble in photography, calligraphy and make the occasional song. I am constantly looking for new things to learn and hope to provide inspiration to others by posting my work online.